The Opposite of Love Is Not Hate, It's Indifference
by Aruberry Cheesecake
Summary: What happens when Judal finally meets someone he can't break? A mere servant girl from Sindria, Mana's apathetic view of life drives Judal completely insane. For months, Judal has been trying to break her with his mind games, but when Sinbad comes along in the picture he finally finds Mana's weakness: her past. Will Judal take this chance to tear her apart? JudalXOC some SINJU.
1. Chapter 1

_AN: Hey everyone! I've been watching Magi the anime, which I've grown to love, and been reading some chapters of the Manga. I completely adore Judal's character and hope you guys will enjoy him as well in this story :)  
Reviews are encouraged, both positive and negative! I really like hearing what people have to say about my work._

_There might also be some homoerotic tension between Judal and Sinbad in future episodes so look out for that._

_Enjoy the story! :3_

* * *

_I hate her. I hate her so damn much._

Judal was wandering around the Kou Imperial Castle, looking for something to waste his time on. No, he wasn't trying to waste time; he was trying to find a distraction from his incorrigible thoughts.

As magi and high priest of the Kou Empire, Judal was treated like royalty. All the servants cared to his endless needs, but he never cared for such luxuries.

He just liked to play games, but more specifically, he wanted people who can actually keep up with his mind games.

And when Judal thought he had finally found someone that knew how to play his cruel games, she just happened to be as good as it as he was. She never yields, and she never cracks. His mind games couldn't get to her. A maid from Sindria, just a common servant girl who supposedly got sold to the Kou Empire, had more issues than Judal can count.

"What's with that miserable look on your face," Ren Hakuryuu, comes strolling in from his daily sword practice.

"Shut up," Judal said bluntly as he passes Hakuryuu.

"It's that servant girl, Mana, isn't it? Is she bothering you?" Hakuryuu raises an eyebrow in skepticism, "or are you bothering her?"

"She's annoying, much."

"You know you can just get rid of her, right? Prince Kouen gave her to you as a gift, but you're not obliged to keep her around," Hakuryuu stated, wondering why Judal never thought of getting rid of her before.

"Don't tell me what to do," Judal spits as his irritation begins to rise.

"Is she that good in bed or something? It's kind of amusing to see how just a servant girl can irk you so much."

"I will cut your tongue off if you don't shut the fuck up," Judal glares at Hakuryuu in intense irritation. Hakuryuu just shrugs and walks away.

Although Mana was given to Judal from Kouen as an escort, Judal couldn't touch her. It wasn't that she was untouchable or unappealing, hell, she was completely stunning with her golden-desert locks and curvy figure. Judal thought back to the moment he first saw Mana positioned on his bed with her wrists wrapped together with chains. Kouen hoped that maybe a new play toy would calm Judal's temperamental mood swings; Judal scoffed at how Kouen couldn't be more wrong. Mana drove him insane. Ever since their first encounter when Judal tried to sleep with her, and as vulnerable as she was, she talked her way out of it:

_"Do whatever you want with me, but I won't scream, neither in pain nor in pleasure."_

Those were the first words Mana had said to him. Her cruel apathy was such a turnoff that Judal didn't even know what to do with her. He preferred not having sex with someone who had the emotional capacity of a corpse.

Sure, he's thought of forcing her into submission, but what fun would that be with a girl who didn't have an ounce of care for herself or what others did to her. He was just too emotionally invested in her in other ways to ever even have a sexual relationship with her. He admired this strange, almost dark, apathy within her, and at the same time he was jealous. Just like Mana, he wanted to feel like he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Judal always wondered what kind of fucked up incident could have led to Mana's intense detachment, or if she was just born with no acknowledgement of consequences. Mana wasn't just a mere servant girl to Judal, she was someone he held some sort of respect for. It was an odd feeling, for a high priest to have this kind of regard for just a common servant girl, and even if she drove him crazy, he would never think of getting rid of her. She was the most interesting person in the palace to talk to.

"Prince Kouen's looking for you."

Speak of the devil.

"Tell him I'm busy," Judal wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right now. Even if it was Kouen.

"Stop being a brat and just go see him," Mana said with an irritated tone of her own.

"B-b-brat?! You can't talk to me like that!" Judal argued.

"Then fire me," Mana's gold eyes stared at Judal in all seriousmess. She's been playing the "if you don't like it, just get rid of me" card since she got to the palace a few months ago.

"SHUT UP!" Judal charged at Mana in the full force, knocking her to the ground. Her spine collided with the marble floor with full impact.

She coughed in pain, but smirked at her master's childish anger.

Judal walked towards her to pin her to the hard, marble floor. His eyes gleamed red in frustration and his breath was unsteady.

"Now apologize or I'll slit your neck."

"Do it, I don't have much to live for if I'm just a mere servant girl anyways."

There she goes again. She speaks like she's already went through all the seven gates of hell and back again.

Judal couldn't be more impressed by her indifference. He's never seen her show much emotion come to think about it. He just wished she would show some look of pain or fear once in a while, it would make her appear more human and not let him feel so _weak_.

In defeat, Judal signed and got off of her. Mana stood up and groaned in pain as her back was bruised from the fall.

"If you hate living in this palace so much, why don't you just go back home to Sindria."

"Like it's that easy… and it's not much of a home anymore anyways."

"I can take you there if you wanted."

Mana's eyes widened at this casual offer. Judal didn't even know what he was saying, he was surprised that he even offered to do such thing.

"Stop talking nonsense and just go see Kouen or he'll just be more irritated, and you know how Kouen gets when he's irritated," Mana smiled and walked away as she didn't even acknowledge this offer of possible freedom.

Judal's mouth scrunched up in confusion. He wondered what kind of girl didn't want to go back home when given the chance. She bothered him so much, but he didn't exactly know why.

Judal sighed as he slowly made his way to see the impatient Kou Prince.

"Sinbad conquered another one of your dungeons today," Kouen was furiously walking back and forth in his extravagantly decorated office, "at this pace, the Kou Empire is going to be at a disadvantage. You need to stop him."

"I can't stop him from conquering the dungeons I conjure, your people just need to learn to HURRY UP and stop slacking."

Kouen glared to Judal with immense annoyance, but he had to put up with Judal's childish behaviors if they had any chance of defeating the Sindria Empire in the future.

"I want you to go to Sindria and make him an offer he can't refuse. Sinbad's empire can't keep growing while we remain stagnant."

"What do you want me to tell him? 'Stop conquering my dungeons and I'll bake you a cake'?"

"Figure it out. You've known him since you two were both young, I'm sure you know how his brain works."

"If only he had a brain," Judal laughed to himself at his inside joke, "he's a moronic king."

"You may not see him in a good light, but he's a major threat to this empire," Kouen clasped his hands as he sat down on his overbearing throne. His eyes were darkened by the lack of sleep he had gotten these past few days.

"I said he's stupid, not weak, he's probably even stronger than you are, Kouen," Judal mockingly retorted. Judal knew what got to Kouen the most.

Judal expected an angry outburst, but Kouen remained calm. Judal raised an eyebrow at the Flame Emperor.

"I know, that's why I need you Judal. I need you to go to Sindria and find this man's darkness, his cracks. A man with that kind of power can't be as just as he pronounces himself to be," Judal was surprised by how much humility Kouen had in his tone of voice.

"Fine," Judal rolled his eyes at the gravity of this conversation, "but I get to bring someone with me to Sindria."

Before Kouen could ask who and why he would want a partner in this mission, Judal disappeared in a puff of smoke with the snap of his fingers.

"You're coming with me," Judal appeared out of nowhere and Mana gasped in surprise as his face was just centimeters away from her face.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop doing that," Mana monotonously plead, but before she can give herself a good distance away from Judal he grabbed her buy the folds of her silk shirt.

"Today is your lucky day Mana, we're going to Sindria, Kouen's orders. You get to go see your home!" Judal had grinned with plotting enthusiasm. He had a feeling Mana would be so excited to go back home, but he wouldn't let her stay there of course. Taking Mana with him to Sindria would build up her hopes enough to break her with disappointment. It would be like letting her taste the icing of a cake, and then taking the full cake away from her grasp. Judal was never letting go of Mana, he needed her with him until he could figure out why he felt such irritable fondness over her.

However, Judal didn't get the reaction he was hoping for.

Mana screamed in defiance. Her yells were loud enough to break glass. Her face began to heat up and her body started to shake uncontrollably.

"YOU ARE NOT TAKING ME TO SINDRIA. I'M STAYING HERE AND IF I CAN'T, YOU CAN JUST TAKE MY DEAD BODY," Mana's voice echoed through the palace, attracting other palace servants to the big commotion.

Judal was baffled by Mana's intense reaction. He's never seen her this angry before, or actually show this much emotion. What was at Sindria that Mana wanted to avoid.

"Calm down woman! Why are you acting so crazy!" Judal grabbed Mana's arms to calm her down. He didn't like this attention she was getting, and he didn't want Kouen to know he would be taking one of his maid servants with him on this mission. She ferociously tried to push away from Judal's grasp, her nails embedding Judal's arms had no effect on him.

In desperation, Mana began to beg.

"Judal, please, I can't go there. I don't want to go there," her voice began to choke up as she tried to hold in her distress.

"What's at Sindria?" Judal asked, but Mana didn't bother to answer.

"I asked you a question. What's at Sindria that you're trying to avoid so manically." Judal's grasp tightened around Mana's wrist, causing bruises to her fragile arms. The longer she mad him wait, the tighter he grasped. Judal almost felt the marrow of her wrist, and she started to wince in pain. He wanted her to forfeit before he could cause some serious damage.

"Sinbad."

Judal's eyes widened, why would a mere servant girl mention the King of Sindria.

"Sinbad, I hate him. I hate him so damn much with my whole being. If I ever lay my eyes on him again I will kill him."

Judal smiled in cruel amusement. He's never seen Mana have such an emotional reaction before, he liked it. He wanted to see more of this self-conflicted hate that she cured up within her.

"Then we'll kill him together," and these were the last words Mana heard before she felt a sharp pain on the back of her head, knocking her unconscious.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Thank you to everyone who reviewed this story! Sorry for taking so long to update, I've been busy with college, work, and stuffs. Special thanks to Clotia, Guest, and Noah for reviewing and to everyone who favorited and followed :) Please enjoy.

Also, this is an alternative time line when Alibaba and Aladdin haven't met yet.

* * *

_All I see are spots of color. Blue and greens, the color of nature. I feel blades of grass poking my back. The grass is soft, and it smells like morning dew. _

_Where am I? The breeze is quite nice. The air… it's sweet and light._

The ground began to shake violently as Mana felt the grass beneath her become hard and uncomfortable. The noise of the intense trembling sounded like thunder. _What's going on?_

A huge pillar rose up. Escalating and roaring from beneath her, the pillar was so unsteady that Mana had to grab on to the patches of grass for her life. The trembling continued and Mana felt the force of gravity trying to weigh her down as the pillar rose up higher and higher. It kept growing and growing until she realized she was above the clouds.

"MANA!"

A voice cried out to a half-conscious Mana. A voice so familiar.

"MANA!" another yell for her, she looked down to see Sinbad climbing the walls of the pillar.

"Sinbad!" Mana yelled frantically, but she didn't have the courage to stand up. Her legs felt like gelatin. She felt hopeless.

_Please help. Please. _

Mana couldn't breathe as the air above the clouds got thicker and thicker. The pillar didn't stop growing, she swore she saw the moon coming closer in arm's reach.

She felt a strong tug on her arm. She saw Sinbad hanging onto the ledges of the pillar, trying to grab on.

"SINBAD!" Mana quickly got up on her feet, forgetting her fears, to help the violet haired warrior. She grabbed onto his hands and pulled him up the platform of the pillar with much force. She almost slipped, as the weight of Sinbad's muscles was greater than her whole body weight. She sighed in relief. He was safe. They would both be safe.

And so she thought.

Sinbad's gleaming violet eyes grew dark and dull. She felt him slowly looming over her, his massive built making Mana feel small and frail.

Taking her into a large embrace, Sinbad wrapped his long and muscular arms around her. She felt warm, a feeling of heat, but not the warmness she was used to. Something didn't feel right. The warmth was suffocating.

As Sinbad tightly embraced Mana, he slowly started lifting Mana, causing her to freak out because her feet could no longer touch the ground. Sinbad wrapped his arms around Mana's body tightly, giving her no room to squirm or escape. He began to walk towards the edge of the pillar, and soon Mana found herself above thin air, off the edge of the pillar.

"What are you doing.. Sinbad.. S-Sinbad?!"

Because Mana was put into a body lock by Sinbad's suffocating embrace, her arms were trapped and she was prevented from grasping onto something. She felt her body slowly sliding downwards, almost like her skin was covered in butter. Mana continued to shriek in fear, but Sinbad did nothing to sooth her terror.

"Sinbad.. Sinbad?! PLEASE!" It was too late, her pleads did nothing.

Sinbad watched as she fell from his grasp to the bottomless pit of darkness. All she saw was the gleam in his dark violet eyes. She swore she saw the eyes of a demon.

Mana woke up from her nightmare screaming and drenched in her own cold sweat. Her body felt numb and her legs were trembling. Then she realized that it wasn't just her legs that were trembling, but the whole ground she was lying on was wobbling and unstable. With her hair being tangled and caught by the wind, she soon realized that she was in motion, but it wasn't on ground. She saw that she was lying on a piece of floating cloth that flew along the airstream. The air beneath the cloth created wobbly waves that bounced Mana unsteadily.

Mana then looked below her to see they were floating over an ocean. She screamed in panic, this was not the way she wanted to be woken up.

She saw a dark haired boy on the edge of the flying carpet. It was no other than Judal. She started to regain her memories from when she was last conscious. She remembered feeling a sharp pain in the back of her head. She cursed, figuring out what must have happened.

"YOU COMPLETE BASTARD! YOU'RE BRINGING ME TO SINDRIA?!" her yells echoed along the deep blue sea. The roars of the ocean couldn't manage to zone her out. Her anger rose as she realized that Judal had knocked her out unconscious just to force her to Sindria against her will.

"I hoped you would stay asleep until we got there," Judal said nonchalantly. He didn't understand the situation he was putting Mana in.

"I'm going to jump off!" Mana threatened impulsively as she tried to stand up, but the unstable motions of the flying carpet prevented her from achieving some sort of momentum to stand up properly.

"Your ass is staying on this carpet whether you like it or not," Judal snickered.

There were no words to express her anger. Mana was sick of playing Judal's stupid games. He knew how much she didn't want to go to Sindria, but he kidnapped her anyway. Mana sighed, that's what she got for showing some sort of emotional reaction, or not really "sort of", but more like an emotional breakdown.

_I'm a wreck,_ Mana thought to herself, biting her lip in all nervousness. She's been so good at hiding her feelings for so long that she's almost forgotten what real irritation and desperation felt like.

"I can't go back to Sindria, Judal. Please. I'm begging you, PLEASE take me back to Kou," Mana plead with every ounce of dignity she had.

"You know Mana, I like seeing you this desperate. It becomes you," Judal laughed. He was enjoying every moment of seeing Mana suffer. He liked seeing this rush of emotion in Mana's face. It brought the rosy red color back to her cheeks and the life to her voice, compared to the corpse he had to deal with for the last couple months.

"So what's the guy done to you, anyways. Why do you hate him so much," Judal casually asked, but Mana ignored the question completely.

"Please Judal… I want to go back…" Mana's voice was like a soft whimper, Judal was impressed to how much desperation had made her utterly vulnerable.

"It's Kouen's orders. We can't go back to Kou until we find Sinbad's weakness, and I have a feeling you're going to be a great asset."

"That man has no weakness. Judal you may be cruel, but Sinbad's a complete monster."

"Monster, huh?" Judal laughed at the idea of Sinbad being considered something worse than he was. Sinbad was the King of Sindria, the citizens adored him as a just and righteous king. How could Mana even see such man as a cruel monster?

Judal gazed at the clear blue sky as he tried to look back in the past for the childhood memories he had of Sinbad. He remembered first meeting Sinbad at one of the ambassadorial events at the Kou Imperial Palace when Judal was just a little kid and still under tutelage for harnessing his magic. Sinbad had been there for supposedly diplomatic reasons, but it was soon found out that he was spying on the expansion project of the rising Kou empire.

Judal remembered his first encounter with Sinbad, it being an unforgettable one. When Sinbad had first laid eyes on Judal, without any forewarning, he had picked Judal up and carried him up in the air in pure amazement.

"So you're the Magi everyone's been fussing about!" Sinbad said playfully to a little Judal as he inspected him while carrying him up in the air, like how a father would playfully toss his child up in the air. Judal was in complete shock since no one had treated him in such childish manner since he had been received by the Kou empire. Judal was feared and respected, but Sinbad took no notice of this prestige. It both irritated, yet impressed him.

Sinbad was completely enthralled by the notion of a magi having limitless magoi. A being loved by the rukh, Judal especially was an exceptional case, garnering the attention of various organizations, such as the Al Thamen. Sinbad took great notice of this as well.

Judal came back from zoning out from the past when he suddenly felt a strong pull in his chest. It was his magoi within him, which Judal had to work on stabilizing incessantly. He had to deal with the constant battle of his white and black rukh inside him, each rukh trying to absorb the other. It felt like a constant series of mini explosions within his soul, neither his good nor bad side being able to gain dominance. Judal wished that he could just be completely overcome by the darkness and maybe things wouldn't seem like a constant conflict with himself, but he's learned the hard way that nothing's ever just black and white.

"Judal, I'm serious. If we set foot on Sindria, I swear to Ra that the first thing I do is find someway to drown myself in these waters," Mana's desperations woke Judal up from his self reflexive state. Her misery was reaching a new low.

"You can't die Mana. I need you for this mission."

"You don't need me. You just need someone to play your sick games on!"

Judal scoffed in amusement. Mana was right, he was getting a kick from seeing her suffer like this. However, Judal knew the seriousness of Mana's desperation. She was willing to get rid of herself if it means not dealing with Sinbad. Judal had to persuade Mana that this mission had her interests in mind as well.

"We're going to Sindria to find Sinbad's weakness, those are Kouen's orders. You're going to help me Mana, whether you like it or not. This mission has you in mind, too. We find Sinbad's weakness," Judal licked his lips at the thought of the results, "we kill Sinbad in the next war."

"Why can't we kill him now," Mana slipped. She didn't mean for those thoughts to escape her mouth. Impressed by Mana's strong intent for blood, Judal's lips curved into a wicked smile.

"Cause if we do, it will cause a war with the Seven Sea Alliance, and the Kou Empire will definitely fall. We need to be more strategic about this. As much as I love war, a losing war is something I can't stand," Judal's crafted his battle strategies ever so carefully. He's been reviewing them constantly in his mind before he could even remember; he just needed a solid execution.

"If we defeat Sinbad's empire from the inside, if we can somehow manage to break apart the Seven Sea Alliance, then Kouen would have a chance in defeating Sinbad and erasing his kingdom from the face of this earth," Judal's passions for war were being fueled with his vision of world dominance.

_If I can't have him, no one can, _Judal quenched his fist as he remembered how Sinbad plainly rejected his offer to join the Kou Empire not too long ago. Judal had everything to offer, power, wealth, armies, but Sinbad rejected him so cooly, as if he had something better planned. Judal couldn't stand it, he couldn't stand Sinbad's smugness.

"Is this an agreement? For my help, will you promise to kill him?"

Mana's golden eyes were burning with passion. She held out her hand for a handshake to symbolize this newfound contract. Judal looked at her quivering palms and laughed.

"I never make promises I can't keep," Judal smiled and grabbed Mana's unsteady hand, but instead of shaking her hands, he pulled her into an embrace. Mana fell forward onto Judal's bare chest. Although she's always considered Judal an unfeeling person, she found comfort and ease in feeling the warmth of his body and hearing the beating of his heart so intimately. She couldn't remember the last time she's ever been this close to a boy before. Despite the several chances she had with sleeping with Judal, to whom she was given as a servant girl and a whore, she's never felt the need for his physical touch until now. His hard and sculpted body provided a fortress-like refuge.

The wind was breezing through the tangled knots of her hair, preventing her from clearly seeing Judal's dark crimson gaze. Was it a spark of empathy she saw in his eyes? Mana tried to shake off this feeling of admiration for such a cruel boy, but his words enticed her completely.

"I don't know what he's done to you, but I'm going to help you satisfy your thirst for revenge."

Mana shivered. She could hear Judal's tone of voice. He was asking for her trust, slyly masking it under the promise of retribution. Mana knew better than to believe such deceptive words, but they weren't empty promises in the least. She knew Judal could get things done, things she could never do on her own.

"We'll kill him together," Mana said as she caved in to the darkness of her heart and her cruel memories. She held on to Judal's perfectly molded body for a while longer as the island of Sindria became closer into view as nightfall approached.

* * *

"Sinbad's drunk," Masrur said while aloofly trying to help steady the King of Sindria, who was also his closest friend.

"He's not drunk," Ja'far sighed, "he's completely intoxicated." Sinbad's drinking habits were getting worse, and even as his personal adviser, Ja'far had no power to control his king's vices.

"Ja'far, Masrur~~ We're the three best friends anyone could ever have~~" Sinbad started to sing in an incomprehensible tune.

"We should put him to bed," Masrur suggested. Tonight was of many nights that Masrur had to deal with the King's intoxicated state, and he was getting tired of it.

"We can't. The night's still young and he still has to entertain many of the guests that have come to see him from faraway countries," Ja'far sighed.

"He's going to make a fool of himself… again, and then we're going to have to deal with his consequences… again," Masmur was referring to a few nights ago when Sinbad started to strip in front of one of the foreign empresses. Despite the fact that she was married to an emperor, she seemed ready and willing to take Sinbad over her husband in a heartbeat. Masmur and Ja'far had to deal with the complications it caused her husband the day after when his wife was purposing a long distance relationship so she could stay in Sindria for longer periods of time. Masmur and Ja'far were Sinbad's high advisers, but dealing with his consequences so Sinbad wouldn't have to himself was part of the job description.

A woman wearing a beautifully embellished, sheer silk dress approached them. The fabric of her dress was too sheer to fully hide the shape of her body, but her long sandy colored hair covered her curves just enough to leave a man room for imagination.

"I can take Sinbad back to his resting quarters," the woman casually, almost brusquely, suggested. Masmur and Ja'far were taken back by how rude this woman was to not even refer to Sinbad as King. As Ja'far was about to correct and chastise her blatancy, Sinbad's mouth gaped open in complete disbelief.

"M-Mana?!" Despite Sinbad's drunkenness he was still able to recognize her face.

"How do you know my name?" Mana asked in complete cluelessness.

Sinbad was slowly regaining consciously, or at least enough restraint to control his limbs. His face grew pale, like he had just seen a ghost.

"Mana, is it really you? I..I thought you.."

_Died? _Mana thought sarcastically as she continued to play a dumb vulnerable servant girl who was stricken with amnesia.

"Do you know who I am my King?" the word _king _was difficult to say since she's never referred to Sinbad in that kind of matter, nor did she wish to. Mana fluttered her eyes in her attempts to be charming and benevolent.

"Words can't express how happy I am to finally find someone who can speak my name, and from the King nonetheless. Your words must be true!" Mana's had a difficult time trying to prevent her teeth from grinding due to her extreme tenseness.

"_Put on a show for him. Your complete helplessness from your 'amnesia' will definitely force him to act. From how he reacts to his first encounter with you, we'll decide what to do from there," _Judal's instructions echoed in Mana's thoughts. She had to do what she had to do.

"These past months have been so hard, I've been lost for so long," Mana's eyes glistened with hope, her voice becoming softer and meek. Although her heart was pounding fervently against her chest, she could not waver in her pretense. She had to find answers.

Mana cautiously approached Sinbad. She was hesitant to touch him, fearing the touch of his skin. As she slowly extended her arms forward to place her hands above his broad shoulders, Sinbad leaned in closer to reassure this body contact. This would be the moment of truth to how Sinbad dealt with his past. Had Sinbad been grieving over Mana's demise all this time? Or was he going to forget and erase his dark past and believe that nothing ever happened? Sinbad could easily rewrite their history at this very moment of revelation, but Mana knew the truth and Sinbad could not erase that.

"King Sinbad, Who am I to you?"

Judal was waiting impatiently outside the event hall, walking around the palace courtyard with a large hooded cloak for disguise. He had to be extra wary of guards since most people knew his face. Judal stared at the party lights that gleamed brightly through the decorated windows of the event hall. He nervously walked back and forth as he was completely oblivious to what was going on inside. How was Sinbad going to react to seeing the ghost of his past?

Their first plan in action was to figure out how Sinbad dealt with his past sins and how he would treat Mana, a ghost from his past. From what little Mana had told him about that fateful day in the dungeon, it had sounded like Sinbad had abandoned Mana for egotistical reasons. According to Mana, Sinbad left her behind to be swallowed by the shadows of a dungeon they tried to capture long ago. Mana had been so traumatized by this abandonment that trying to talk about it was even severely difficult, which is why Judal could only collect bits and pieces of her tragedy through her shaky murmurs.

When Judal had asked what her relationship was to Sinbad, she could not give a straight answer. It seemed like Mana, too, was not even sure of what she meant to Sinbad. All she said was that she thought she _meant more_ than to be tossed as a mere nuisance. Sinbad's betrayal had crushed all feelings, both past and present, Mana had towards him. The only emotion she could relate to Sinbad was pure disgust and hatred. However, from how Judal perceived it, he understood Mana's feelings more than she, herself, did. This feeling Mana harnessed within her wasn't hate. It was pain.

Judal assumed from Mana's ambiguous memories and her irrational emotional reactions that she was probably Sinbad's mistress. If Mana was simply his mistress, it made sense to Judal to why Sinbad would easily leave her behind in the dungeons to rot. Women were a dime a dozen, and Sinbad, as king, would have women lining up for him.

Giving Sinbad the power to dictate Mana's past memories would reveal not only his feelings for the girl, but also how he dealt with the guilt of his sins.

Judal needed to know what Sinbad would tell a supposedly memory-less Mana. Would he dictate her memories to conform to his needs? Or would the truth be revealed, and his guilt recognized?

Judal knew his plan was a long shot, but he almost felt like it was also too big to fail. If Sinbad truly grieved his past, then Mana would be Sinbad's greatest weakness.

"M-Mana...I'm so sorry…"

Her heart fell through the floor. She had not seen this coming.

_He's apologizing?! _Mana's heart was beating faster, her cheeks heating up, as she could smell the familiar scent of his body. Sinbad reached out his palms to caress her cheeks. She winced in discomfort. Sinbad saw this, but he didn't retract his touch. Instead, he leaned in closer to her face, lowering his gaze to eye-level.

Mana freaked. Her senses going crazy, she didn't want him any more nearer than he was. Her eyes automatically strayed away from him, and for a quick moment she caught a glimpse of a dark hooded figure in the corner of the room, who she assumed to be Judal. Her breathing became steadier when realizing Judal was in near proximity.

"Look at me," Sinbad whispered to bring her attention back to his piercing violet gaze, his face gravitating closer to hers. Sinbad cupped his hands softly around Mana's flushed face to bring her into a long, passionate kiss.

A mix of feeling flushed through Mana's body: her mind frustrated, her body yearning, and her heart aching. She didn't know what to feel, this kiss was like poison disguised as elixir. Her hands quenched up into a fist to get ready to punch him in the face, but her lips continued to sensually nibble on Sinbad's lower lip. Her feet wanted to kick him in the groin, but her fingers crawled up to the nape of his neck. Mana felt so disgusted with herself, but the way her lips fit perfectly with the mold of his made her want more.

The whole event hall was in complete shock at the King of Sindria publicly and sensually kissing a mysterious woman dressed in sheer silk. Judal stood in the dark corner of the hall, his face a bit uneasy to see this public display of affection. However, Judal felt a bit of contentment as his plan was coming together, even if it wasn't necessarily the way he planned.

"_That kiss has got to be more than something. If Mana can play her cards right, she could use the power of lust to destroy him and this pathetic empire,"_ Judal whispered to himself.

Sinbad closed their long intimate kiss with a gentle smile. Mana's face was in complete disbelief. She couldn't believe what just happened. She didn't want to believe it. Sinbad held Mana's hand tightly and lifted it up in the air, like an athlete receiving a media in the Olympics.

"MY QUEEN HAS RETURNED!" Sinbad proudly announced to the whole bewildered crowd. His voice echoed across the event hall, stopping all other side conversations and musical performances. Ja'far and Masmur looked at each other in complete puzzlement, thinking that their King had truly gone mad with his drunkenness.

Mana's jaw dropped. She could not believe what she was experiencing. She was no queen, and especially no queen of Sinbad's. In sheer panic, she quickly pulled her hand away from Sinbad's grasp of parading display. Everything was happening so fast. Mana couldn't take it, so she did what first came natural.

She ran.


End file.
